2009-01-04

An UNIX system is like a huge Integrated Development Environment. But, in order to use the environment, you have to type a lot of text in the command-line. Now, it is convenient to open a command-line prompt exactly where you want it to be.

Under Windows, the command-line does not play the same role as in UNIX, but it is also convenient to open the MS-DOS Prompt or its newer versions where you need it. Changing directory is tedious.

Nautilus scripts

Gnome is my favorite graphical user interface. It is the default GUI on Ubuntu and Fedora (see the Wikipedia list of systems using Gnome). Nautilus, the file manager for Gnome, has a nice feature: its context menu can be extended via scripts. The scripts must be placed in a special folder:

~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

I would put on top of the list of scripts command_prompt_here. You find it in the collection of scripts from pixelbeat. It does what its name suggests: you select a folder and the script opens a terminal with the working directory exactly there.